


Free Stroke

by serendipityxxi



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-10
Updated: 2012-02-10
Packaged: 2017-10-30 21:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/336280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johanna takes something back from The Capitol</p>
            </blockquote>





	Free Stroke

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for all 3 books
> 
> Disclaimer: Disclaimed.

Johanna Mason was no great swimmer. She didn’t love the water like Finnick who seemed to come alive in it. Like he had. He was dead, no more present tense. She didn’t like the thought of him being dead but she could hear his voice laughing in her head, “Don’t think of me dead, just picture me naked instead. You’ll feel better,” he’d tease. The thought did make her want to smile and then it made her want to hit something. The Capitol had stolen enough. She’d never been afraid of the water before.

It took far longer than Johanna’s pride would have liked.

Training in the rain with the rest of her squad was somehow easier than showers alone where just the sound of the running water made her want to hide or break something. Katniss’ mother was very good about calming her down in the beginning when Johanna couldn’t control the screams that pierced the thin walls of their quarters. Eventually the short showers turned into baths that she never enjoyed but grew to tolerate which turned into wading in the shallow edge of the lake Gale had found in the woods near 13.

Gale didn’t talk much and that suited Johanna just fine. When they did speak they ended up arguing until someone shoved the other one over. She liked the days when she was the one pushing him into the water though she couldn’t deny the urge to hold him under came and went frequently when she did. She didn’t hate Gale, she didn’t even dislike him but the urge to make someone feel her pain, even for an instant was strong sometimes. Gale never knocked her over when the water was more than knee high and he never made her feel stupid when she sputtered and flailed and acted in general like she was drowning in two feet of water. He never helped her up either though and that was what she appreciated the most. He would stand there, muscles tensed and ready but he always made her pick herself up.

One day she found a strange parcel on her bunk in her quarters. It was from Beetee. The odd gear turned out to be a facemask, snorkel and instructions on how to use them. He shows up to personally demonstrate them a few days later, Johanna is not impressed and yet she’s also incredibly envious that it’s so easy for him to just put his face in the water and trust that small plastic tube to keep him alive. It took her over six months to get used to the idea, another six months before she tried it. Two years to get comfortable and when she is finally able to splash Gale with her fins he laughs and it lights up his eyes and she wonders who the boy is that’s replaced the stern eyed young man she’s been training with for so long.

Johanna Mason swims not with the grace of a District 4 native but the determination of a survivor of the Hunger Games. Every even stroke is distance between her and the Capitol, distance between being trapped in that cell and being free. The Capitol has stolen enough. She’s not letting them have anything else even this stupid pond in the middle of nowhere.


End file.
